This invention relates to fail safe electrical receptacles, more particularly, a fail safe electrical receptacle that provides power to an outlet only when a standard electrical plug is inserted into the outlet and trips a breaker when an object which is not a standard electrical plug is inserted into an outlet.
Oftentimes, accidents occur in the home due to children inserting objects into power receptacles. If the child is lucky, he or she receives only a minor shock and learns to never insert anything other than an electrical plug into a power receptacle. However, more often than not, a child receives a severe shock, which may not only cause physical and psychological damage to the child, but may also cause physical damage to the home.
In order to help reduce the amount of these types of accidents in the home, a wide range of receptacle safety devices have been invented and used. For instance, the most common method of child safety proofing a receptacle is by inserting plastic safety plugs into an unused outlet. Although the outlet covers do provide protection, oftentimes the adults forget to reinsert the covers after using the outlet, thereby exposing the live outlet to the children.
In addition, a wide variety of shock resistant electrical outlets have been invented wherein power is not provided to the outlet unless the internal switches are triggered, via electrical plugs or other object, to an on position. In many instances, however, children become creative and insert two different foreign objects into the receptacle at once, thereby turning on both internal switches to complete a circuitry loop, resulting in the child getting shocked.
What may be one of the worst aspects of children inserting foreign objects into a receptacle and receiving a shock is that oftentimes the parent and/or adult in charge of watching the child does not know the child received a shock as children typically experiment with the receptacles out of the adult's supervision. Thus, a child may be seriously injured in one room due to the shock while the adult is in another room going about his/her business, oblivious to what had just transpired. If the child was fortunate and did not receive a shock, he or she may be tempted to insert foreign objects into other outlets, unknowing that doing so may electrocute himself/herself.
Thus, there exists the need for a receptacle which provides power to only when a standard electrical plug is inserted into the outlet and further provides a means to inform a person that someone inserted a foreign object into a receptacle.
The relevant prior art includes the following patents:
Patent No.(U.S. unless stated otherwise)InventorIssue/Publication Date2003/0124893CampbellJul. 3, 20032002/0104745AllisonAug. 8, 20026,455,789AllisonSep. 24, 20024,271,337BarkasJun. 2, 19816,111,210AllisonAug. 29, 20004,995,017Sellati et al.Feb. 19, 19915,113,045CroftonMay 12, 19924,951,732NeuenschwanderMay 27, 19862004/0067692Chevarie et al.Apr. 8, 20043,846,598MucsiNov. 5, 19742003/0085108Chiang et al.May 8, 20032003/0045145Mortun et al.Mar. 6, 20035,267,870MareshDec. 7, 19934,867,694ShortSep. 19, 19894,168,104BuschowSep. 18, 19795,387,761SimonisFeb. 7, 1995
Although the prior art discloses many safety electrical receptacles, non has the same structure and operation as the present invention.